This invention relates generally to the textile industry, and more specifically, to the machinery used in the production of textile yarns. Textile spinning machines have long been used in the production of textile yarns, and various improvements have been added to the basic unit to obtain increases in efficiency. Included among these important developments are travelling units which simultaneously clean the machines, monitor yarn production, detect broken yarns and automatically accomplish interruption of the supply strand when a broken yarn is detected. Examples of devices of this type are disclosed in commonly owned U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,523,413; 3,659,409; 3,726,072; 3,841,076; 4,112,665 and 4,263,776.
Various devices have been used in these prior systems to effect interruption of supply strand feeding to the drafting systems of textile yarn spinning machines. Any reader interested in disclosures of suitable supply strand interruption devices is referred, by way of example only, to a number of commonly owned prior patents: U.S. Pat. No. 3,832,839 to McClure, U.S. Pat. No. 3,841,076 to Ford et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,000,603 to Lee and U.S. Pat. No. 4,326,371 to Soar.
Those active in this art will be cognizant of the fact that a great variety of spinning machines are in use throughout this worldwide industry. It has heretofore been the practice to mount the strand interrupting apparatus to the "roll stand" portion of the drafting unit, but because of the tremendous variety of drafting unit arrangements on the various textile spinning machines, it has been necessary to custom design and manufacture a special mounting arrangement for the strand interrupting apparatus for each different drafting unit configuration.
In my copending application U.S. Ser. No. 587,396 a strand interruption apparatus is provided which is suitable for more universal application to the many and varied geometries of spinning machines available and in use. This is accomplished by mounting the strand interrupting apparatus between the supply package and the drafting system upon a supporting structure which is attached to the spinning machine itself, rather than to the individual roll stands. Several embodiments of the strand interrupting apparatus are disclosed. In general, these embodiments each comprise an elongate strand guide positioned between the supply strand packages and the drafting units and which extends longitudinally past a plurality of successive drafting units. A rotatably mounted collar is carried by the elongate strand guide, and includes a movable strand engaging surface which is adapted to cooperate with a corresponding fixed strand engaging surface associated with the elongated strand guide. The collar is normally oriented in a strand feeding position with the strand engaging surface of the collar positioned in a spaced apart relation from the cooperating strand engaging surface of the strand guide so that the strand is permitted to pass freely between the two strand engaging surfaces, but upon actuation the collar means is moved to a strand interrupting position in which the cooperating strand engaging surfaces are positioned in proximate relation to each other for interrupting feeding of the supply strand passing therebetween.
The present invention provides an improved strand interruption apparatus of the type described in my aforementioned copending application. The improvement in accordance with the present invention relates to a more easily workable strand interruption apparatus. A modified elongate strand guide is provided extending past a plurality of drafting stations. The strand interrupting apparatus further comprises a collar mounted for rotation about and longitudinal travel along the elongate strand guide. One end of the collar defines a strand engaging surface extending generally perpendicular to the axis of the strand guide while the opposite end of the collar forms a cam surface. An abutment member is also carried by the elongate strand guide and includes a strand engaging surface positioned opposite the strand engaging surface of the collar means. In addition, a sleeve-like member is carried by the elongate strand guide and is positioned opposite the cam surface end of the collar means. This sleeve-like member includes a cam surface that cooperates with the cam surface of the collar means.
Upon the sensing of a broken strand, an actuator means causes the collar means to rotate, and the cooperating cam surfaces, in turn, cause the collar means to move along the longitudinal axis of the elongate strand guide. The longitudinal movement of the collar means along the longitudinal axis of the elongate strand guide brings the strand engaging surfaces of the collar means and the abutment member into a proximate relationship with one another to effect interruption of the supply strand passing therebetween.